DERLEY ABBEY CHARTERS PRESERVED AT BKLVOIR. 37 



At first sight the number of grants of various kinds made by 

 this Ralph fitz Ralph of Wessington to the Abbot and Convent of 

 Derley, would seem to indicate a wonderful amount of religious 

 devotion and ztal for the welfare of the Augustinians at Derley. 

 Field after field, cultures, serfs, rents, pasturage, and privileges 

 seem one by one to fall into the hands of those ecclesiastics, so 

 much so, that we almost suspect them of exercising an undue and 

 selfish influence over a weak-minded man. 



The following deed, however, affords a clue to the dissolution 

 of his estates at Wessington. He had fallen into the hands of the 

 remorseless usurers of his time, and was obliged to sell and 

 mortgage his property for his deliverance out of the hands of the 

 Jewr' ("ad adquietandum me de Judaismo ") ("To acqtiil me 

 from the Jews") ; until in the end the monks generously made him 

 and his family a yearly allowance for their subsistence. 



Endorsement — " Convencio inter nos et Radm de Wystanton 

 et uxore eius et filios." 



(29) vbhis is the agreement made between Walter, the Abbot, 

 and the Convent of Derley on the one part, and Ralph fitz Ralph of 

 Wystanton on the other : — That the abbot and convent should 

 give to them — Ralph and Matilda his wife, food and clothing 

 honourably, and all sufficient provision (estoveria) for the whole 

 of their lives under this form, viz. : fourteen white loaves of the 

 canons, and fourteen gallons of good ale every week, and other 

 food sufficient for two canons, in flesh or fish, as befits the day. 

 And for food for one servant and a handmaid ministering to them, 

 twenty and eight loaves wf free serving, and seven gallons of 

 second ale every week, with other food suitable, and suitable 

 wages from time to time, and honorable lodging fit for them, with 

 other necessaries, & specially wood or charcoal for fuel of wood. 



* In ihe 45th of Henry III. tlie Burgesses of Derby paid the king 10 marks 

 for a certain charter, providing that no Jew or Jewess might stay or tlwell 

 wilhin the town of Derby, either for the accommodation of the King, or his 

 licirs, or anyone else. {Kot Orr'g. in Cur. Sccaccarii.) 



